


Destiny

by chancellorxofxtrash



Series: VRAINS Soulmate AU [3]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, M/M, Monster Aqua (Yu-Gi-Oh), Multi, POV Alternating, Pain Sharing, Soltis Aqua (Yu-Gi-Oh), Soltis Earth (Yu-Gi-Oh), You all know what Spectre does in canon to Aoi it happens here as well, at least for the duration of the fic, both earth and aqua get soltis bodies too, but there are some monster cuddling too, so you know fair warning, the spectre/aoi part is like... the least romantic one out of the pairings, y'all know what spectre is like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-07 22:41:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21225419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chancellorxofxtrash/pseuds/chancellorxofxtrash
Summary: Aoi wished she didn't know who was her soulmate.Or in which every single soulmate-connection here is messy, and nobody is very happy about how things are unfolding, but they need to work things out.





	Destiny

Having soulmates was never high on the priority list of Akira Zaizen. He had suspicions he might have a soulmate out there, but as life went on, and more and more things happened, he pushed those thoughts out of his mind. If he had a soulmate, and they were destined to run into each other, they will. He did not have any inclination to look for them. He had other priorities, after all.

Namely, to keep Aoi safe.

Before their parents died, maybe he would have been more willing to maybe look for his soulmate - but it stopped mattering as soon as he and Aoi were all that remained for each other. Everything else became not even secondary, but tertiary, or even further down the line.

They had to survive. Or rather, he had to help Aoi survive - and not just survive, but in safety. So he had to ignore all other distractions, and keep Aoi safe.

He did not expect the trouble to come from another soulmate.

The first time Aoi screamed out loud, they were in a tiny little room they managed to book for the night, and Aoi’s entire body jerked, and she crashed to the ground from the pain. Akira was instantly by her side, pulling her into his arms, and she was shaking badly.

“Aoi! Aoi are you alright?”

“Hurts…” Aoi whimpered, clutching Akira’s arms, trying to hold onto him for dear life. “It just… it hurts.”

“Where? Where does it hurt?”

Aoi sniffled, pulling herself even smaller. Their landlord banged on their door, yelling that if there will be another scream, they can go out to the streets.

Akira did his best to ignore him, as he petted Aoi’s hair, trying to calm him down.

“Just… everywhere.”

~*~

The landlord didn’t let them stay another night, and this was a running theme for the next days. Akira needed money, but how should he leave Aoi alone, when any given moment, she would jerk and scream in pain, and shiver for a few minutes afterwards?

He couldn’t. He really couldn’t.

From their saved money, they found a back-alley doctor who was willing to run a few checkups on her. Just in case.

“Huh. Well, she may not be getting as much food as she should - neither do you for that matter - but other than that she seems physically healthy.”

“Feeling pain out of nothing is not normal.”

“Well, technically---”

Aoi screamed out again, her entire body jerking, as she tumbled off the bed - Akira grabbed after her, and the doctor just hummed, fixing his glasses.

“Technically this is sort of normal. And cannot be helped. Unless you know who her soulmate is.”

Akira rubbed Aoi’s back, holding her in his arms, trying to soothe her as she was crying again, and he just looked up at the doctor, who seemed annoyingly nonchalant about the whole thing.

“...her soulmate?”

“Yup. Whatever is happening to her doesn’t happen  _ to her.  _ It is happening to her soulmate. You can’t do much to help from this side, unless you manage to find her soulmate, I am afraid.”

The doctor was not very helpful, needless to say.

He did let Akira take a small first-aid kit.  _ In case she falls and hits herself badly when the next shock comes. _

That was not very helpful, but it seemed like there was nothing else Akira could do.

~*~

Half a year. The whole thing went on for half a year.

Six months of Akira not wanting to let Aoi out of his sight, and worrying constantly when he had to. He had to turn off some job offers because of that.

The shocks were infrequent, and became less as time went on, but sometimes days passed without one, other times multiple shocks came a day.

He also noticed Aoi was way hungrier and clutching her stomach more when there were more shocks. More pain, more hunger. And Akira couldn’t always give her his portion of the food,  _ because he didn’t always have a portion. _

Six months of pain and screams and tears and hunger, and Akira never felt so useless in his life. He vowed to protect Aoi from everything, and he  _ couldn’t.  _

He just held her in his arms while she cried. That was all he could do.

It was also hard to say when did it stop, because of how infrequent the shocks were - but the time since the last shock went on longer and longer, and eventually, it just never happened anymore.

Akira watched the news intently from diners, but saw nothing that could indicate anything changed. Hard to connect these events to anything.

In the end, they didn’t get an answer.

Not until ten years had passed, at least.

~*~

It wasn’t until he walked into the SOL database with Ghost Girl that he understood.

Ten years ago.

The Lost Incident.

The Hanoi Project.

The starvation. The electric shocks.

Six children.

And there was Playmaker, anger and fire in his eyes, screaming---

_ “You have no idea.” _

Aoi was also standing there, her eyes widening, and Akira slowly shook his head.

_ I do. Playmaker, I wasn’t there, but I… _

He could have told him. He could have said anything about Aoi.

But Aoi stayed quiet, so…

So did Akira.

~*~

He entertained the idea that Playmaker could be Aoi’s soulmate. There was a one-in-six chance of it either way. It was obvious that one of the Lost Incident victims was her soulmate. Unless there was another incident going on around the same time with very similar methods… yeah it was quite sure.

Playmaker was the only one Akira actually knew out of the six victims, and had no idea of the identity of the others - or any way to track them down. True he didn’t really  _ know  _ Playmaker’s identity either. But he knew Playmaker was a Lost Incident victim, and that he was out on a quest for truth and revenge - a bundle of fury and vengeance, not willing to stray from his path.

But…

But he came to Aoi’s aid. But he pulled Tindangle Hound and Tindangle Angel out of the Graveyard when he didn't need to. When he looked at Akira and Aoi by that point, his gaze might not have softened, but his voice did, urging them to stay out of the darkness he was walking into.

Playmaker was vicious, focused, and unwavering. But also, it seemed like he was, at his core, a good person. A good person, dragged through  _ horrible  _ circumstances, and probably would have needed  _ more  _ therapy that he admitted to getting, ending up angry and laser-focused, but a good person through and through.

A part of Akira really hoped that Playmaker was Aoi’s soulmate.

Of course, that hope died not long after.

~*~

Spectre was grinning viciously, despite wincing alongside Aoi, when she got damaged.

“Oh dear. Silly, silly girl. You thought you could save me. Nope, you can’t. You talked yourself into thinking you can save people, and for what? Because you had beaten Baira? Since Playmaker showed up, you just kept fumbling around, that’s the truth. And did you think that just because I am your soulmate, you can  _ save me?  _ You need to try  _ harder  _ than this. Because this was quite frankly,  _ pathetic.” _

Aoi’s face slammed to the ground.

Spectre also jerked from the pain, looking up at the sky - and he smiled.

~*~

~*~

Aoi wished she didn’t know who was her soulmate.

Sure, she managed to put it together it was one of the Lost Incident victims. It became quite obvious after she found out what the incident  _ was.  _ It would also have been easy to hope for Playmaker - she figured it probably wouldn’t have been, well, terrible. She didn’t think of Playmaker as… well, anything other than a competitor or a potential ally, but he was consistent, at least. Not unpredictable, once you had glanced beyond his facade.

But even during Playmaker’s battle with Aoi’s brother, she knew it wasn't him. It couldn’t have been. She felt nothing when he was hurt during any of his duels.

There were still five victims she did not know before.

It did not take for their duel to last long to realise who Spectre was - and she didn’t want to think of this.

Soulmates implied destiny - a shared destiny, and she didn’t really want anything to do with that. Her classmates often whispered, talking to each other about phantom pains they felt, sometimes even worried about their soulmates. Even the duelling club was not immune to that. After all, it was a romantic, appealing concept - someone who knows the worst you had been through, someone who can completely understand you. (Shima was especially annoying about his chattering about his soulmate.) (Whether it was true or not, Aoi never pried. Might have been. Better not fuel those flames, though.)

She often thought of her soulmate when she was younger. That she would hug them and tell them she won’t let them be hurt like that anymore.

Needless to say, she did not want that anymore.

She expected to eventually have more pain - after all, Spectre was also a duelist. She would have preferred never to meet him, ever again, but the pain, she was prepared to endure.

She did not expect to feel the Earth Ignis’ pain, however numbly.

During his duel with Go Onizuka, and then after, watching the footage from SOL, she felt the pain all over her body.

That pain wasn’t as sharp as anything Earth probably felt, but it was still there, she felt like bits of her were being slowly taken away, bit by bit.

She doubled over, hugging herself, shivering, shaking from the pain, and she just heard the Ignis beg for his life, beg for mercy, she felt Ghost Girl hug her.

“I don’t get it… I don’t get it, what is an Ignis?”

~*~

She did not fully understand what an Ignis  _ was,  _ until she met with Aqua, and she told her about Miyu, and the pain she suffered, and her current condition.

“Earth… I wish I could have helped him, but I… I just felt his pain, and…”

Aqua just looked at her with her gentle, glowing eyes.

“You do have a soulmate.”

Aoi nodded, her stomach in a knot.

“It’s… it’s someone I do know was part of the Lost Incident. And he also has… earth-based monsters. So I guess he must be the one who was… Earth’s…”

“Earth’s origin” Aqua nodded, and she reached out, putting a hand over Aoi’s hand. “I understand.”

“I did not feel Earth’s pain as much as Spectre’s… that’s his name, Spectre. But I still felt it.”

“And Spectre probably felt Earth’s pain as much as he feels yours.”

Aoi looked at Aqua, and there was a question…

“...what about Miyu’s soulmate, Aqua?”

“It’s a more complicated matter” Aqua replied sincerely. “But I do feel the pain of Miyu’s soulmate, if a bit more muted. An origin is as closely connected to the Ignis as they are to their own soulmates - but the soulmates aren’t free from this bond either.”

Aoi nodded, looking down at Aqua’s small hand on hers.

“What should we do now, Aqua?”

“Aoi… will you fight with me?”

Obviously, she said yes.

~*~

Looking for Lightning wasn’t easy, and took more time than it should have, but at least she had Aqua by her side.

She lived at Ema’s place, and went to school from there - and her brother seemingly respected her wishes to have her own place to think, because he didn’t pry. Her duel disk was always quiet at school, but she didn’t feel lonely, knowing that Aqua was there.

During the evenings, when Aoi was tired of patrolling, and Ema logged in herself to go into the darker corners of Link VRAINS, Aoi was lying on the bed, and listened to Aqua talk.

Aqua was talking to her about what Cyberse looked like, and Aoi would close her eyes, and try to picture it. The beautiful virtual landscape, different parts shaped by different Ignis. When they were all happy. Before the Hanoi attacked them.

She tried not to think too hard about the Hanoi. If she thought of the Hanoi, she also had to think about…

So she pushed those thoughts away, as she was just lying there on the bed, duel disk next to her, and listened to Aqua’s words.

“I wish I could have seen it.”

She didn’t open her eyes - and she just felt something soft slither around her. It was comfortable and warm, and when she opened her eyes, she supposed she should have been more scared.

Aqua wasn’t in her tiny form anymore, she was bigger, more monstrous - Aoi had seen Playmaker’s partner in similar forms before as well, briefly, so she figured it wasn’t that surprising that Aqua could do it too. She was in this monstrous form with long appendages slowly creeping around Aoi, comforting her.

But as Aoi looked into Aqua’s glowing eye, Aoi felt  _ safe. _

So she just closed her eyes again, allowing Aqua to touch their foreheads together.

~*~

They teamed up with the Hanoi.

It made sense, Aoi reasoned. Revolver was merely the son of the scientist who did the Hanoi Project, and was a child himself during that time. It made sense. They also had a common enemy in Lightning and his faction - they needed all the help they could get, and Revolver was willing to call a temporary truce.

And Revolver also had a plan - but he knew that with Revolver…

“Are you afraid of seeing him again?”

She was holding the duel disk in her hands, as she looked down to Aqua, who was looking up at her sincerely.

Aoi knew she could tell truth from lies.

“...I don’t know how I feel. I don’t want to see him again. If I could choose, I wouldn’t. But it seems like destiny makes us meet again.”

“If you don’t want to fight, you can say so. I would understand.”

“I can’t do that” Aoi shook her head. “I can’t do that. I won’t abandon Miyu. And I promised Playmaker and Soulburner… and also Ai and Flame. And you. Spectre is just… another obstacle I have to face.”

Aqua looked at her for a few moments, before rising out from the disk, so she could hug Aoi again.

“You are brave, Aoi. Don’t worry. I won’t leave you alone. I will be there by your side all the way.”

Aoi held onto Aqua, pulling her even closer, and enjoyed the way Aqua was nuzzling her.

She never wanted to let go.

~*~

The day came when the program to run the Tower of Hanoi was finished, so all of them had to go there and meet each other.

And of course, there was Spectre.

He seemed perfectly polite this time around - willing to answer Ai’s question about the other Hanoi, and Aoi’s heart was beating in her throat.

(She asked Ema about this too, and she smiled.

“Well. I kinda wish I could run there and kick his ass myself, but my job will be different.”

“Also you can’t fight my battles for me.”

“No, I can’t.”

“And I can’t fight this battle yet either.”

“No, it would probably be a bad time for it” Ema agreed, before smiling a little. “You can get a little satisfaction out of it though.”)

“Before we activate the tower, there is one thing I would like to do, if you don’t mind.”

She spoke up, and was all-too aware of everyone’s eyes turning to look at her, and she took a deep breath.

Before she moved quickly, and punched Spectre in the face.

The pain and the surprise made Spectre lose his balance, and Aoi herself winced, feeling her own punch, but she stood her ground.

Spectre fell down, and he  _ laughed. _

“Ow, Blue An--- no, it’s Blue Maiden now, is it not? Is this you being mad at me, or being slightly self-punishing? This hurt you just as much as it hurt me, isn’t that right?”

Aoi straightened her back, avoiding looking at everyone else, as she just glared down at Spectre.

“Both. But I needed to get this out of my system before we go forward.”

“Blue Maiden…” Playmaker started, and Aoi just shook her head.

“You don’t have to say anything” She said, looking at Playmaker. “It is just like Revolver and Soulburner. I can keep my own anger in check until our business is finished too.”

Playmaker nodded, as Aoi walked forward, not looking back at Spectre, who was still laughing a little while standing up.

“We can go now.”

~*~

This was the first time Aoi watched Spectre duel. This was the first time she felt him being injured during a duel where she was not a participant. She felt every blow Lightning landed, she felt him… she felt him fade away.

The same emptiness she felt when Earth disappeared - only a lot more sharper, and more present.

(And Spectre himself mentioned feeling like a part of him disappeared, when Earth did.)

Aoi just stood there, eyes fixed on the screen, and Aqua reached out, touching her arm.

“I’m fine.”

Aoi said in a soft voice, wiping the tears off her face with her spare hand.

And Aqua did not point out her lie.

~*~

Disappearing once again was not something she planned on doing, needless to say.

But by that point, it was out of her control.

She just wished she wouldn’t have let Aqua down.

~*~

It wasn’t until after Bohman was gone, that Playmaker let her know who he was. Well… she may have made a fool out of herself, when she told her brother that they would surely know who Playmaker is, and she didn’t have any idea that he was sitting a few rows away from her in class.

But that was an embarrassment for another day.

“How are you?”

Aoi slowly nodded.

“I am… fine. I think. I visited Miyu in the hospital. She will be let out soon.”

Play--- no, Yusaku nodded a little this time.

“I just… wish she could have met Aqua.”

“That’s why I called you here.”

Aoi looked up, frowning a little, looking into Yusaku’s determined eyes.

“We… Ai, Takeru, and some others, we are working on bringing the Ignis back.”

“Is that possible?”

Yusaku shook his head, determined.

“It doesn’t matter. We have to try our best, and we may have some leads.”

Aoi looked down, before straightening her back, and looking back up with renewed determination.

“If there is anything I can help with, let me know.”

Yusaku actually smiled a little (who knew he was capable of that), before nodding.

There was still hope in the end, after all, apparently.

~*~

“Ah, I am nervous.”

In retrospect, giving the Ignis access to SOLtiS bodies might have caused some concerns, but really, it was just so much more comfortable, walking side by side with Aqua, and not having to talk into her duel disk.

Even if Aqua herself looked very… well.

She was not quite as eccentric as Aoi’s Blue Angel avatar, but definitely kind of looked like a magical girl. With a blue theme as well, lots of ribbons, her blue-pink hair in two, giant pigtails on the top of her head.

Aoi figured they wouldn’t look odd inside Link VRAINS, but outside of it, they figured they probably looked very… off.

Nevertheless, she took the hand of the nervous Aqua, rubbing the back of her head softly.

“It will be fine. Come on, I will be with you through all of it.”

Aqua smiled gratefully, and just followed Aoi into the hospital.

They were lucky that Miyu’s mom was not there - Aoi didn’t want to imagine what she would have said, when she saw the two of them walk in, but Miyu’s face lit up.

“Miyu, I… I think you should meet Aqua.”

Aqua stepped forward with a small smile, taking Miyu’s hands between her own hands (and Aoi felt somewhat lonely, when her hand was being let go of, and she didn’t want to think of that).

They told her everything she needed to know, and Aoi saw how Miyu was fighting with herself, holding her tears back, pursing her lips.

“...thank you. For telling me.”

They had to leave soon after that, and Aqua was holding Aoi’s hand again.

“What do you think, Aqua?”

Aqua was quiet, before raising her hand, and pressing a kiss to the back of Aoi’s hand.

“I think she needs more time. I’m going to have to talk with her later as well. About her soulmate.”

“...you said it’s complicated with Miyu.”

“It is” Aqua agreed, with a sad smile.

(After Aqua told her, Aoi understood immediately why it was complicated.)

~*~

“I did not think you would look for me.”

Spectre looked at his own duel disk at the table, and the orange figure who was sitting on it, obviously as tense as an Ignis could get. (Which was, as it turned out, surprisingly tense.)

“Aqua told me you felt my pain as I died. I figure it would be beneficial for both of us, if we were to talk, and come to an agreement.”

“You do know I am with the Hanoi, right? Aren’t you afraid that we are just going to do the same to you as SOL did?”

Earth frowned, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“I thought of it. I am not entirely sure you won’t.”

“You are blunt.”

“I am socially awkward” Earth replied, blinking. “I don’t entirely trust you, but Aqua told me I should talk with you. And as we feel each others’ pain, it does need to be dealt with. Besides you are the soulmate of Aoi Zaizen, are you not? And Aqua does care about her a lot as well, so hurting Aoi Zaizen would hurt her. Which I also cannot allow.”

“It wouldn’t hurt her literally” Spectre pointed it out. “They may have partnered up, but they don’t have a connection. You probably are more connected to her than Aqua is, seeing as she is  _ my  _ soulmate, and you are connected to me.”

“It doesn’t matter” Earth said, his voice unwavering. “Aqua chose her. Aqua loves and trusts her. Which means I will protect her as well, in case I need to. Even from you.”

Well.

At least Earth was honest, wasn’t he?

“So, what do you propose?”

“If we partner up, our efficiency will get better.”

“You think?”

“According to my data, every Ignis who partnered up with their Origin had a significant rise in duels they won.”

Spectre turned around, looking at Earth again.

“Is that why you want to partner up? To raise your efficiency?”

Earth was silent a bit, and Spectre laughed out loud.

“Let me guess. You also sincerely want to get to know me better.”

“...I am socially awkward.”

Spectre reached down, grabbing his duel disk, attaching it to his wrist.

“Welcome to the club, then, Earth.”

~*~

“I can’t avoid him forever, Aqua.”

Aoi was lying on her own bed this time, and Aqua in her bigger, more monster-like form, wrapped around her as usual, and Aoi’s fingers were tracing the patterns on Aqua’s skin.

“But I still don’t know what I want to do.”

“Really don’t know, or don’t want to know?”

Aoi set out a frustrated sigh.

“Really, your ability is a handful sometimes.”

Aqua laughed a little, pushing her head to the crook of Aoi’s neck.

“Sorry. Do continue.”

“Well. I guess I do want a rematch with him. But I…”

“You are afraid of losing again.”

Aoi closed her eyes, and Aqua hummed gently.

“You have gotten stronger, Aoi.”

“So did he, probably.”

“You have me.”

“And he has Earth.”

“Even if you lose again, standing up to him will be very brave. Not many people would do that. Not after the way your last duel ended.”

Aoi did not open her eyes, just pressed a kiss to Aqua’s head.

She did not feel particularly brave.

~*~

Obviously Earth got himself a SOLtiS body too - taller and broader than the other Ignis, with brown-blue hair, and very striking, glowing blue eyes, but apart from that, he looked almost subdued next to the other Ignis. Especially when he was just wearing a brown hoodie, with jeans.

“I don’t feel the need to show off like the others do. They like attention more than me.”

“Even Aqua?”

“Aqua deserves it the most out of them.”

“I thought you were jealous of others paying attention to her.”

Earth looked down, toying with the hem of his hoodie.

“I can still protect her now even if she has others to do that too.”

Spectre hummed, before leaning forward (okay, having to push himself to his tiptoes a bit), to push Earth’s hair out of his face, and he smirked a little.

“You do know, that if you look the least obnoxious out of a group of obnoxious androids, you are the one who stands out the most?”

Earth blinked at him for a few moments, before he started blushing - and Spectre didn’t even hold back his laughter, as Earth covered his face with his hands in embarrassment.

~*~

“You can say we can turn back, if you want to, Aoi.”

“No. Let’s go.”

Aqua was in her SOLtiS form as she nodded, and held Aoi’s hand.

_ Into the VRAINS! _

The area Aqua led Aoi to, was breathtakingly beautiful. It was a forest, and a friendly stream. It was beautiful blue sky, and small clouds, and a rainbow in the distance.

“It’s beautiful.”

“It resembles how Cyberse used to look like.”

Hearing the sudden voice, Aoi turned that way, and there were the two of them - Earth and Spectre, with the former replying to Aoi, and the second also looking around, obviously just arrived as well.

Aoi took a deep breath, and she nodded.

“Are you going to rebuild it?”

“Maybe” Earth replied, tilting his head a little. “We were still discussing it. But that is not why are we here now.”

Of course they weren’t, and Aoi could not avoid that.

And at this point, she found that she didn’t even want to.

“So. What is the point of this meeting, then? I figure you two want us to make up. How do you propose we do that?” Spectre asked, and Earth looked at him before answering.

“You are going to duel.”

Well. That was obvious.

So obvious nobody bothered to point it out.

“We will participate too” Aqua said, pushing her pigtails behind her shoulders. “So it will be a two-on-two duel. Consider it like we are the moderators of the duel, so it doesn’t go out of hand. We will not take over, but we will support you.”

“Is it because we are soulmates?” Spectre asked.

“No” Earth said bluntly. “You are my partner. And Aqua had chosen her as her partner. If you two are at odds, it might keep Aqua and me apart eventually. So we are going to help you make up.”

Well. That made sense, Aoi figured, so she nodded.

Spectre also nodded with a little smirk.

_ Duel! _

Having Aqua by her side during her duels was incomparable to the duels she had when she was alone. It didn’t matter whether or not Aqua was explicitly next to her, or just in her duel disk, helping her out, Aoi almost felt like there was no way she could fail.

Even if she knew it wasn’t true, seeing as they did fail against Bohman - but it didn’t matter. Being next to Aqua felt like safety and stability. And feeling safe was way more than Aoi could have hoped for, ages ago.

And the two of them did win the duel.

Oddly enough, Earth and Aqua were barely even scratched. Aoi and Spectre were both on the ground, gasping for air. Aoi on her knees, and Spectre lying on the ground, laughing.

Aoi straightened her back, taking out a card from her deck.

She glanced at Aqua.

Aqua smiled and nodded.

Aoi stood up, and walked over to Earth and Spectre, and just handed the card over to Spectre.

“I think… no, we think that this card suits you two way better.”

Spectre reached out and took the card.

Crystal Heart.

Obviously.

~*~

“So. Does defeating me make you feel better about yourself?”

“You know what? It actually does.”

Aoi was sitting next to Spectre, both of them still bruised from their duel, and they were both watching the other two. Earth was walking in the stream, Aqua piggybacking on his back, and laughing with a bright, cheerful voice, her wet hair falling into Earth’s increasingly reddening face.

The two of them looked… happy.

“Does this mean you don’t want to save me anymore?”

Aoi frowned, looking at Spectre’s smug face.

“No. You can save yourself if you want to.”

“Wow. That’s harsh. Is that any way to treat your soulmate?”

“Is slamming your soulmate into the concrete any way to treat them?”

“Did you really give up on saving me, or are you just trying to say that so I stop mentioning tha-- ow! This hurts you as well, doesn’t it? You really like hurting yourself, doesn’t you? Are you still mad at yourself for losin--- ow!”

Aoi punched Spectre in the arm (twice), and resisted the urge to rub her own arm over the pain.

“Yes. Yes I am mad at myself for losing. But it doesn’t matter. I decided to step over it.”

“After beating me.”

“After beating you.”

Spectre nodded a little, humming, looking back at the two Ignis having fun.

“So you did that. What are your plans now?”

Her plans now… Aoi sighed, looking at Aqua and Earth as well.

“I don’t have big plans. I want to reconnect with Miyu more. I want to stay with Aqua. I also want to get to know the other Ignis as well, seeing as they are important to Aqua. Things like that.”

“Shouldn’t building a connection with your soulmate be part of that list?”

Aoi glared at Spectre from the corner of her eyes.

“Well, if you stay close to Earth, I guess that can happen as well.”

~*~

“Are you disappointed by her reply?”

Spectre leaned on the desk, propping up his head on his arms, and looked at Earth sitting in the duel disk.

“Her being my soulmate never meant all that much to me. Just a source of some of the pain I had felt through the years.”

“Or maybe you were just disappointed that your soulmate was not what you figured she would be.”

Spectre glanced up at Earth, raising his eyebrows.

“Explain. I’m all ears, how did you even arrive to this conclusion?”

“You lacked connections in your life, apart from the tree you connected to, and the phantom pains you got from your soulmate” Earth said, in that blunt way of his. “So you probably couldn’t help looking forward to it. Probably built up expectations for her. And then you got angry she didn’t live up to some high standards you built up for her.”

He was silent for a few moments, before blinking slowly.

“For someone who is apparently socially awkward, you claim to understand me very well.”

“Neither of us can connect with others easily, so we notice more things” Earth said. “I guess that is one thing the two of us share.”

Spectre hummed a little, looking at Crystal Heart in his hand. It was a powerful card - and he could already see it complimenting his Sunavalon deck perfectly.

_ Sunavalon Crystal Heart  _ had a certain ring to it.

“I can help putting it into your deck.”

Earth offered, and Spectre nodded, giving the card to him - and as Earth’s hands grabbed onto the card, Spectre leaned forward, pressing a kiss to Earth’s face.

The effects were immediate, Earth’s blue eyes widened, there was a blush on his face, and he flailed a little nervously before disappearing into the duel disk in utter and obvious panic.

And then the SOLtiS powered up where it was left in the corner, the android’s face getting quickly flushed as well, even before he opened his eyes.

Then he saw Spectre, and seemingly panicked again, and Spectre smirked.

“You know, I can still kiss you in this form too.”

Now that just made Earth blush even more.

~*~

“You did well. I am proud of you.”

Aqua’s arms were around Aoi, as they were lying on Aoi’s bed, and she was just clinging to Aqua, not wanting to let her go.

“Do you feel better now?” Aqua asked her gently, and Aoi smiled.

“Yes. You know, I think I do.”

She wanted to fight for others, but she couldn’t do that unless she could stand up for herself.

And she probably had to start that with finishing her unfinished business with Spectre.

She didn’t want to guess where did her future lie with Spectre. That was still a question that needed answered, and one she probably won’t be able to answer until further down the line.

But her present was in Aqua’s arms, so she wanted to make the most of it.

So she pushed herself up, to be able to kiss Aqua - and Aqua kissed her back, wrapping her arms around Aoi even tighter.

Yeah.

Being there, kissing Aqua, there was really no reason to worry about the future, at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Also I did woefully underutilize Miyu here, but I do plan on giving her a bigger role in another fic. And estabilish her relationships with both Aqua and her own soulmate, and possibly Aoi too.


End file.
